Carr's mother jailed

The mother of Maxine Carr was jailed for six months today for intimidating a witness in the Soham murder trial.

Shirley Capp, 61, from Grimsby, was found guilty last month of threatening her neighbour Marion Westerman.

Today at Sheffield Crown Court, Judge John Reddihough, said he had no choice but to jail Capp because to do otherwise would be to "send out completely the wrong message".

Capp showed no emotion as the judge read out his sentence but her daughter, Hayley Hodgson, was in tears in the public gallery.

The jury in the trial heard how Capp threatened Ms Westerman during an argument at her house, which began with a dispute over a cat.

Ms Westerman had told police and, eventually, an Old Bailey jury that she had seen Maxine Carr and Ian Huntley looking in the boot of a car outside Capp's house shortly after 10-year-old Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman went missing.

She said that Carr was crying.

Today, the judge said he was satisfied that Ms Westerman had been frightened by the threats made by Capp and had told a police officer immediately afterwards that she was not going to give evidence in the Soham trial because of them.